Turkey Tourism Profile 2012

After foreign tourism got off to an impressive start in the early months of 2011, the majority recent available data, for January-July, show a moderation in increase but with the number of tourist arrivals still up by nearly 11% year-on-time(y-o-y). A number of top tourism markets recorded strong increase in arrivals, particularly, in order of importance, Germany (8% y-o-y), Russia (16%), the Netherlands (14%) and France (30%). In contrast, the UK, another relatively significant source market, recorded a 5% y-o-y fall in arrivals over the-month period.

Hospitality Following a very strong rebound in the hospitality sector in Q111 from foreign and domestic tourists, data for Q211 show reasonable increase in the total number of foreign and domestic tourist room nights, which were up by 8.5% y-o-y. Foreign tourism provided the increase, with the number of nights up by 12% compared with Q210. Domestic tourism over the quarter was subdued, however, with nights falling by over 2% y-o-y. The split between foreign and domestic room nights in Q211 was 80% to 20% respectively.

Terrorist Incidents There was an increase in terrorist attacks in Turkey in summer 2011. In July, 13 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish rebels were killed in south-eastern Turkey in of the deadliest clashes in recent years. In August, three soldiers were killed in an ambush by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in eastern Turkey, while nine soldiers were killed and 14 were injured in an attack by the PKK in Hakkari province close to the Iraqi border. In September, there was a suspected bomb blast in Ankara that wounded additional than a dozen people.

Estimate Scenario

BMI maintains a favourable outlook for foreign visitor arrivals in 2011, with annual increase estimate at over 12%. We as well continue to expect increase in arrivals to slow somewhat in 2012 but remain relatively robust. This outlook is half based on the continuing economic recovery in Turkey’s major source markets, including the eurozone, Russia and the UK. We have revised our economic increase forecasts for the eurozone this quarter and now expect increase of 1.9% (from 2.1%) and 1.7% in 2011 and 2012 respectively. However, increase in Germany - the key market for inbound tourism - is estimate to slow from 3.5% in 2011 to 2.0% in 2012. In Russia, we expect solid economic increase of 4.6% and 4.5% in 2011 and 2012 respectively, while UK increase should pick up from 1.4% (revised down this quarter) to 2.2% over the same period. The sharp depreciation in the Turkish lira against the euro and the US dollar has improved the competitiveness of the tourism sector. However, we expect the lira will appreciate against both currencies in 2012, with estimate exchange rates of TRY1.9400/EUR and TRY1.4000/US$ by the end of the year.

Istanbul Atatürk Airport

The solid increase in foreign tourism so far in 2011 is confirmed by data from the country’s major airport, Istanbul Atatürk Airport. During the first months of 2011, international passenger traffic was up by over 14% y-o-y to about 8.6mn passengers.

Turkish Airlines In June 2011, Turkish Airlines (THY) dismissed press reports that it had been in contact with Spanish airline Spanair about a possible partnership. In July, THY said it will commence a new route: Istanbul- Dammam-Istanbul. The airline as well announced, in August, the extension of the Istanbul-São Paulo- Istanbul route to include Buenos Aires. Its most recent figures, for January-August 2011, show a solid increase of 10% y-o-y in total passengers,, reaching about 21.2mn. International business class traffic was up by 24% y-o-y.

New markets for Turkish inbound tourism

Over the review period the weight of source markets for Turkish inbound tourism changed significantly, with the share of Western European nations declining while Russia, Iran and other Middle Eastern nations are becoming increasingly significant. The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism is increasingly focusing its marketing activities on new markets. In particular, the Turkish government is planning to attract additional Middle Eastern tourists and position Turkey as a distinguished health and wellness destination. The Middle East has been identified as a key increase market considering its cultural and geographical closeness to Turkey and the preference of Middle Eastern tourists for a country with a strong Islamic culture.

Competition escalates in air travel

Turkish Airlines has succeeded in making Turkey a hub for transit between Europe and the Middle East, strengthening at the same time its position in the Turkish air industry. Budget airline Pegasus as well experienced significant increase over the review period thanks to its competitive prices and aggressive promotions. However, Turkish Airlines responded to this price competition in 2010 through its low-cost arm AnadoluJet, and through SunExpress, a joint venture with Lufthansa. Both these airlines fly from Sabiha Gökçen, the airport on Istanbul’s Asian side where a new terminal opened in autumn 2010. Sabiha Gökçen is as well Pegasus’ hub airport.

Health and wellness tourism on the rise

The economic crisis pushed a lot of Europeans to seek ways to lower their medical costs. This search has put Turkey on the map as a popular destination for those wanting lower-cost healthcare. Health and wellness tourism is increasing in importance within the Turkish travel and tourism industry through 30 JCI accredited hospitals, world-class technology and experienced personnel. Turkey has mostly received health tourists from the Netherlands, the UK, Belgium and France. There has as well been an increase in Middle Eastern patients who have begun to prefer Turkey to Europe. Apart from hospitals, natural sources, such as thermal springs and spas, are as well driving request for health and wellness tourism in Turkey. The richest regions for spas are the Aegean, Marmara and Central Anatolia.
Tourism increase set to continue

A lot of positive factors are expected to benefit the Turkish travel and tourism industry, which is estimate to enjoy healthy increase over the 2010-2015 period. Turkey is increasingly popular in emerging markets such as Russia and the Middle East, which will substantially contribute to estimate increase. As well in the additional mature Western European markets, Turkey’s tourism offer is proving competitive in terms of price for money. The strong marketing and promotional activities carried out by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the steadily improving hotel and transportation infrastructure and the development of tourism niches such as health and wellness will amount contribute to help drive increase.

Turkish tourism records increase despite the world recession

Travel and tourism is of the majority dynamic industries in Turkey. Despite the economic crisis, this industry continued to grow in Turkey in 2009, although at a slower rate compared with the average for the review period as a whole. As a result of a number of factors, including the high proportion of the younger people increasingly taking professional jobs in urban areas, Turkey was less affected by the economic crisis than most other Western European nations, which favoured domestic tourism. As well, in terms of inbound tourism, the depreciation of the Turkish Lira (YTL) against the US Dollar, inclunding generally competitive prices, made Turkey a favourable destination for foreign tourists.

Global economic crisis leads to cheaper prices for travel accommodation

The world economic crisis meant that income levels dropped globally, which meant that travellers preferred cheaper holiday options, which offered good price for money. Price-sensitivity was of the key trends in the market. Prices of Turkish travel accommodation declined, starting from an already low base, in order to maintain incoming tourist numbers. Thanks to its natural beauty, rich history and cheap prices, Turkey remained a very popular destination for inbound tourists in 2009.

Land transportation is favoured

Government policies affect tourism flows

Tourism expands to the whole of Anatolia

Prior to the review period, incoming tourism was largely concentrated on the southern region of the country and Istanbul. However, towards the end of the review period, in order to fuel increase in tourism, tour operators started offering tours to different regions of the country which are as well rich in historic monuments and natural beauty, such as central Turkey and the Black Sea. Following the new tourism law of 2008, new grants and subsidies were offered to companies which wanted to invest in less popular tourist destinations, which created new destinations for sports tourism, culture tourism, archaeology and health and wellness tourism.

A Tourist's Paradise

Turkish tourism showed a rapid evolution after 1980, and the number of tourists visiting Turkey between 1980 and 2005 increased 17.5 times and revenue from tourism increased 5.5 times. The number of tourists visiting Turkey within the same period increased by 17.5 times and the annual tourism revenues rose by 5.5 times.

Comprehensive projects are underway to shift tourism activity from the coastal regions to the Anatolian hinterland. These projects which will trigger the second tourism boom in Turkey will be concluded in stages, the first between 2004 and 2006 and the second in 2007 and 2010. The target is 30 million tourists and 30 billion USD in tourism revenues in 2010.

A total of 21.1 million tourists visited Turkey in 2005, falling to 19.8 million in 2006 the share of tourism revenues is 25% in exports and 5.7% in gross national product.

A Country For Amount Tastes

Turkey has so much to offer her visitors: breathtaking natural beauties, unique historical and archeological sites, steadily improving hotel and touristic infrastructure, a tradition of hospitality and competitive prices. It is not surprising therefore that this country has recently become of the world's most popular tourism destinations.

Due to Turkey's diverse geography can experience different climates in any day. The rectangular shaped country is washed on three sides by three different seas. Its shores are laced with beaches, bays, coves, ports, islands and peninsulas. The summers are long, lasting as long as eight months in some areas. Turkey is as well blessed with majestic mountains and valleys, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and grottoes perfect for winter and summer tourism and sports of amount kinds.

Fethiye

Skiing fans, mountain climbers, trekkers, hikers and hunters can enjoy new and unforgettable experiences in Turkey. But Turkey is, above anything else, a huge open-air museum, a repository of amount the civilizations nurtured by the soils of Anatolia. The huge amount of historical and archaeological wealth in Turkey seems additional appropriate for an entire continent than a single country. Recently, a new field of tourism has opened up an health tourism.

The country is in fact rich with hot springs, healing waters and muds which come highly recommended by the medical authorities as a remedy for a lot of diseases.

Konya / Mevlana

For centuries, Turkey has as well been a crossroads of religions, not only of Islam and Christianity, but of a lot of others now forgotten by history. A lot of religious devotees can find a site, a shrine, a monument, a tomb or a ruin connected with their faith or belief.

Turkey, as a country full of traces of various cultures that have influenced their time and geography, has a cultural heritage with roots going as deep as the first civilizations ever recorded in history. Home to a mosaic of people that have built empires, the country’s riches are so extraordinary in diversity that visitors can experience a modern way of life, while taking a glimpse at the distant past at the same time.

Amount this makes Turkey a geography that shaped history, where sea meets the mountain and where the cultures meet each other. For this reason, Turkey is increasingly regarded as of the majority popular holiday destinations by people that are seeking for a perfect match of nature, history and culture.

• * Turkey was visited by 23.3 million tourists in 2007 and 26.5 million tourists in 2008. With these number of tourists, Turkey ranked 8th most visited country of the world in 2007 and 7th most visited country of the world in 2008.
• * Turkey received $18.5 billion tourism revenue in 2007 and $22 billion in 2008.
• * The objective in the tourism sector is to be included part the top nations of the world in terms of attracting the highest number of tourists and receiving the highest amount of tourism revenues by 2023.
• * Istanbul is the 3rd mostly visited city of Europe, followed by London and Paris.
• * Istanbul will be the “European Capital of Culture” in 2010.
• * Turkey ranks 13th of the world in convention tourism (International Union of Associations).
• * THY increased its profit by 327% in 2008.
• * THY was selected as the “Best Airline of Southern Europe” in 2008 (Skytrax World Airline Awards’09).
• * In 2008, the number of the airline passengers in Turkey exceeded 75 million.
• * Istanbul Ataturk Airport was selected as the “Second Best Airport of Southern Europe” (Skytrax World Airline Awards’09).
• * The share of the tourism revenues in the GDP in 2008 was 3%.
• * Turkey is part the top nations of the world and ranks 2nd of Europe with its 1,300 thermal springs, in terms of its rich geothermal resources and potential. Bed availability in thermal tourism has reached to 35,000.
• * In Turkey, there are 20 skiing centers, 14 golf courses and approximately 40 marinas.
• * Within the framework of the “Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage” which came into force in 1983, there are 878 cultural or natural properties worldwide registered on the World Heritage Inventory as of 2008. Nine of our properties (the Historic Areas of Istanbul, the City of Safranbolu, Hattushash (Bogazkoy)-the Hittite Capital, Mt. Nemrut, Xanthos-Letoon, the Great Mosque and Hospital of Divrigi, the Archeological City of Troy, Pamukkale-Hierapolis and Goreme National Park in Cappadocia) are on the inventory both as cultural and natural heritages.

Source: R.T. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism website

INSIGHT YASED, July 2009